China's State Council recently adopted the country's first national regulations on access to government information.  The “Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Disclosure of Government Information” could mark a significant shift away from the presumption of nondisclosure and the tradition of secrecy. Under the Regulations, which will go into effect on May 1, 2008, all levels of government above the county level are required to create a system for proactively disclosing information and responding to citizen requests. To prepare Chinese officials for the new laws, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative supported the participation of the first Chinese delegation in the International Conference of Information Commissioners (ICIC), in addition to creating training materials and researching effective models for implementing information disclosure requirements.  Read more »